Nursing round 2...

One of the joys and challenges I chose to partake as a mommy is nursing. I had made up my mind long before Mia Grace was born I would nurse and my strong will was determined to stick it out no matter what. Mia Grace and I had our ups and downs for sure as she was born early and spent 9 days in the Special Care Nursery so I was pumping milk from the time she was less than a day old! I literally pumped milk for over 365 days straight! I stopped nursing Mia Grace in February of this year and stopped pumping on her 1st birthday. Some of the challenges MG and I faced included her not really learning how to properly latch until around month 3 (and then battling going backwards throughout), overactive letdown (IE fire hoses on my chest - HA!) etc etc. I am also now convinced that the use of the  pacifier also was not our friend at the start; however it was crucial to her staying soothed in the ICU so I wouldn't change that for the world.

Anna Beth and I have been off to a much better start. I got to try and nurse her when she was about 2 hours old (beat MG by a couple days) and we did not allow the nursery to give her a pacifier. It was evident from the start that she too had a tight little jaw and thus the blisters commenced! She knew what to do though so I had a strong inclination we would be better off! It was also very evident by day 3 that my milk supply had returned in full force and so did the strong let down! Thankfully the lactation specialists are wonderful and quickly helped me master (OK so that's a strong word, lets call it get a good grasp on) the football hold which is very helpful for C-Section recovery as well as angling little ones head to help with the let down.

I am happy to say the blisters are gone and while we still work on our latch we are off to a great start! I have a good grasp of when to take her off to let her breath (poor thing gulps and swallows from first suck) and often pump off an ounce or so particularly at night to give her a breather and start building my stock of milk. I must say though, I forgot how MUCH of my time this takes up at the beginning! Silly little girl also has her big sister trait of wanting to sleep much more than she wants to eat. I still wake her up for most feedings though of course she is glad to wake herself up in the middle of the night!

I know nursing just doesn't work out for everyone for all sorts of reasons but I am so thankful to be given the blessing of sharing this gift with Anna Beth and pray we make it as long as Mia Grace did!

After our first nursing session... such a sweet moment!